Half Training - Week Three

Before I get started here, I just want to wish a fellow running blogger a very special good luck on her Half Marathon this weekend. She just started running this past August, so it's quite a feat for a noob. Oddly enough, it's BECAUSE she's a novice doing a Half that I'm doing my own. I've got a competitive streak and I'm definitely one to be inspired by the goals of others :) Anyway, I'm very excited to see how it goes!

Ok sometimes I like to just blabber on about my runs...like every little detail. Clearly people reading could really care less about these stupid little observations, but I find them entertaining. And that's what I like about running. Each run is different in some distinct way. Sometimes this part of your body hurts while this part finally feels great. Sometimes people around you are annoying and making cat calls. Sometimes you come across a bizarre situation. Sometimes you run into someone you know. In any case, in this particular post I'm in the mood to talk about tonight's little details.

Tonight was my 6 miler and let me start off by saying that it was virtually perfect. I felt great, even better than last week's 5 which was all awesome n' stuff. This is because if tonight's run was a vacation spot, it would be the Bahamas...aside from the temp of course...in that I took it eeeeaasy like Sunday morning! With that said, reason why I took it easy: my first step onto the pavement. Nightmare. My left knee just shot with pain immediately...step after step after step. So much so that I was limp-running! I was like: uh this isn't good...but me being me, I just dealt with it and ran super slow and super light, like ginger baby steps. This went on for a mile, so I probably did it in like 11-11:30 minutes! Yipes! The great thing about this, however, was that my breathing felt like laying in a hammock on a June day in the late afternoon...ahhhhh.

Next up was the part where I passed a condo's gym with giant windows and inside I saw an older gentleman walking the treadmill with a button down, sweater vest, and khaki slacks on?!?

Then my running tights felt like cactus and were reaching into areas I didn't know existed, until I literally had to stop (which I hate doing) and adjust everything.

And then, because a large snowstorm is approaching and because I ran downtown and on the lakefront, it was blustery as all get out. Luckily I was running with the wind...unluckily I had decided to put my hair in a ponytail instead of two pigtails like usual. So my bangs don't really stay up. So here's the gale force winds whipping my bangs into my eyes and mouth until I let out an extremely frustrated sigh and tried to re-ponytail everything WHILST keeping up my pace (which is still like 10:30 min miles, mind you...haha!). I ran another mile and it just didn't work. I know bangs in your eyes and mouth probably sounds like a walk in the park, but I seriously wanted to start throwing things, what I wouldn't GIVE for a couple of barrettes. Finally I took all of my hair down and started over, putting the two sides into pigtails. STILL running! And because I was running, it took me forever, and the people I passed by probably thought I was nuts!!

After that, I said to myself: alright Katie, let's get the heck out of this hammock already! So I picked up the pace. Approaching the last mile and a quarter, I looked at my watch: 49:00 Aw crap! I'm so NOT going to do this in under an hour am I?? I kicked it up several notches. I crossed my imaginary finish line...one hour, one minute, fifty-five seconds...deece.

Ahh, I crack myself up. Anyway, Week 3 was great! I'm up to two 3.5mi runs during the week. The second one I did at a 9:30min mi pace which is really getting back in the swing of things! I'm truly getting back to my old self and it makes me feel great! I did some more kickboxing this week too which was a ton of fun! I'm learning the moves and I don't feel so stumbley!

I had to do my "weekend" long run tonight because tomorrow I'm heading to Madison for the Wisconsin v Michigan Hockey Classic in Camp Randall as in outdoors! I can't wait!! So WALKING (and beering?) will by my cross-training tomorrow ;)

Ok! One of my near-future goals is to get a new pair of shoes. I'm starting to notice some slight discomfort and it'll be good to break in a new pair for the Half. Thanks to ANOTHER fellow running blogger for the advice!! :)

*SIDEBAR!! THIS JUST IN! I looked at my MapMyRun training log and for Week 3 I ran exactly 13.1 miles!!! It like suddenly hit me: Ok! That's what you did this week, in nine weeks, you'll be doing all that in ONE DAY!!!! WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHH!!!!!

whoa.